AN OFTEN-OVERLOOKED CLOTHES-WASHING NECESSITY: THE INFORMAL JACKET THAT I WEAR DURING COOLER WEATHER

Today, I finally addressed a long-overlooked clothes-washing need for myself by putting my jacket in the washing machine, using cold water only.

I did this after I checked the back side of my jacket's label and read today that it can be washed in a washing machine, and that I should only use cold water for that. Also, the back of my jacket's label advised me to select "tumble dry" when I put it into a dryer, which I also plan to do.

Of all the items of apparel I own, my jackets and coats are the items for which I am MOST likely to procrastinate about  getting them cleaned.

Here in Austin, where a high percentage of the Anglo adult men my age or younger whom I observe in public are very disheveled-looking, riddled with vulgar tattoos, hairy-faced, and hideously defiant of the norms for elegance and hygienic stylishness, I cannot recall the last time I myself took an item of clothing of mine to a dry cleaners here.

I am no longer living in the North, so I now suspect that here in Texas I became rather "casual" about washing my jackets and coats on a regular basis.

There is much less of a sense of showmanship or public display of one's own body and attire in public here in Austin, Texas, than there was in Minneapolis or Boston when I previously lived in those two respective northern cities.

I also need to candidly add that the percentage of all of the Anglo single adult residents my age or younger in Austin, Texas, who are notably unattractive to me is much higher than in Minneapolis, for instance. The incentive for presenting myself as attractively as possible here in Austin is significantly lower than it was for me in a northern city such as Minneapolis or Boston.

Another reason for my not making use of the dry cleaners here in Austin is strictly financial. It is very true that I'm low income and financially challenged.